Pre-Code series begins

The films of UCLA Film & Television Archive’s latest film-screening series once caused quite a stir, and today they are again stirring up excitement.

Starting tonight and running through Feb. 23 at UCLA’s Billy Wilder Theater, the series focuses on Universal and Paramount films from the pre-Code era, or the years 1929 to 1934, before Hollywood’s Production Code censorship was enforced.

The Production Code, also known as the Hays Code, was first instituted in 1930 in response to the birth of talking pictures in 1927. The Production Code put a halt to the appearance of nudity, illegal drug or alcohol abuse, and any positive depictions of immoral acts such as crimes or adultery.

Most, if not all, of these films have never been publicly screened and are not available on DVD. These rare finds have been recovered, preserved, and archived by Bob O’Neil, Universal’s head preservationist, and his team.

“It’s really neat because it’s such a cross section of films … not all of them you’d consider classic pre-Code,” O’Neil said.

The pre-Code film series will be the third presented in five years, thanks to high demand from moviegoers.

“Our pre-Code programs have been immensely popular with audiences. The era was a fascinating, unique and all-too-brief period in Hollywood history before the censor boards really cracked down on content, when anything, no matter how salacious, sexually provocative or subversive, was presented without much censorship,” said Mimi Brody, an associate programmer with the Archive.

The 12 films boast scandalous titles such as “Manslaughter,” “The Cheat” and “Impatient Maiden,” and feature early works of directors Rouben Mamoulien and James Whale along with actors Gary Cooper (“City Streets”), Charles Laughton and Carole Lombard (“White Woman”), and Cary Grant (“Hot Saturday”).

“(Back in the day) if a studio had a film, once it was played and they got their money, they would throw out old films in a dump. UCLA started to save these films until we accumulated more and more (and) we had to lease extra space to store it all,” said Kelly Graml, head of marketing and communications at the Archive.

This particular series is a collaboration with Universal’s archive library, which consists of roughly 5,000 feature-length films and 50,000 preserved titles, some of which are also Paramount titles.

“We’ve been working with Universal for many years and were aware of their preservation program, but had not yet focused specifically on their preservation work. We thought the time was right to spotlight the great preservation work they do on Universal and Paramount titles,” Brody said.

Considering their credentials, it is important to show these pre-Code films to a modern movie audience.

“I was absolutely blown away in how sensitive the movie (“Miracle Man”) was and how well it was done. (The films) kind of speak for themselves. … It’s a little bit edgy, a little bit naughty in comparison to those later on,” O’Neil said.

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